Puzzles, Poems, Prayers and Thoughts for June 2020 - www.stjohnsurc.org.uk
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Puzzles, Poems, Prayers
and
Thoughts for June 2020
www.stjohnsurc.org.uk
www.stjohnsurc.org.uk
MORNING SERVICES
OnLine
Every Sunday At
10.30am
2
3
May the Peace of the Lord Christ
Go with you wherever
He may send you.
May He Guide you
through the Wilderness
Protect you through the Storm.
May He bring you home
Rejoicing at the wonders
He has shown you
May He bring you home
Rejoicing once again into our doors.
4
Nigel Beeton writes: “Simon, my vicar, was completely unfazed by the
closure of his church in March. The very next week he’d set up ‘Zoom’
and many of us have been weekly attenders of his ‘virtual church’ for
the weeks now. I realise that many other churches are doing the same,
but we’ve had people join us from all over the place! Of course, we all
look forward to getting back to St Mary’s, but it has brought the con-
gregations together in ways that we could never have imagined. This
poem began one recent Sunday morning when I said to my wife, Carol,
“let’s go and worship at St Sofa’s”. That inspired her and so the first
verse of this poem is hers, not mine!
St Sofa’s
We worship at St Sofa’s now
Since Covid came to stay
We don’t dress up or do our hair
But still we come to pray!
Our Vicar is a clever chap
A Zoom with his IT
And so we sit down ev’ry week
And meet up virtually!
Our Parish Church stands empty
With praise she does not ring;
But still her people gather round
To pray, and praise, and sing!
The virus is a nasty thing
Yet it has helped us see
The church is NOT a building
But folk like you and me!
By Nigel and Carol Beeton
5
Quotes — Old and New
Have courage for the great sorrows of life, and patience for the
small ones. And when you have laboriously accomplished your
daily task, go to sleep in peace. God is awake.” –
Victor Hugo, writer
“The coronavirus is about dying tomorrow. With climate change,
we’re talking about my grandchildren dying.” –
Sir David Attenborough
“I think one of the big effects is there’s a renewal of the sense
that we all belong to Christ… I’ve been deeply moved by the
services I’ve participated in; they’ve reached out in a way that
surprised me and that is, I think, a sign of the work of the
Spirit… We’re finding this all over the country. There are so
many clergy streaming from really basic facilities, finding huge
numbers of people online with them, and making a huge
impact.” –
Archbishop Justin Welby
‘Be strong and of good courage; do not be afraid, nor be
dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.” –
Joshua 1:9
6
‘Be Ready‘
The Bible says, ‘Don’t brag about tomorrow, since you don’t know
what the day will bring’ (Proverbs 27:1 NLT). The truth is, when you
wake up every morning you have no idea what will happen to you that
day. You hope for a trouble-free day where your expectations and
wishes will be fulfilled – but you know from experience this isn’t
always the case. We live in a real world with real problems. Your
enemy the devil is real, and he works in every possible way to bring
discouragement, fear, and failure.
Knowing this, the psalmist wrote: ‘If you make the Lord your
refuge…no evil will conquer you: no plague will come near your
home. For he will order his angels to protect you wherever you go…
The Lord says, “I will rescue those who love me. I will protect those
who trust in my name. When they call on me, I will answer; I will be
with them in trouble. I will rescue and honour them. I will reward
them with a long life and give them my salvation”’ (Psalm 91:9-16
NLT).
No matter what comes your way, you must trust that
when it arrives God will give you the grace to handle it. Remember,
Satan loves to attack those who are in line for God’s blessing. That’s
why Paul wrote, ‘(I am ready for anything and equal to anything
through Him who infuses inner strength into me.)’
Inner strength is better than outer strength. Why? Because as
long as you remain strong inwardly, you can handle anything that
comes against you outwardly and keep moving forward. So today –
be ready.
PRAY that you would be ready and prepared for anything that
comes your way today.
Taken from: UCB Word for Today
FREEPOST RLTX-ABUL-GRAR
United Christian Broadcasters, Westport Road, Stoke-on-Trent Article submitted by
ST6 4JF
Email:ucb@ucb.co.uk Annette Mace
From whom free copies of the daily devotional are available.
7A prayer for Trinity Sunday…
Shield me
O may God shield me, and may God fill,
O may God watch me, and may God hold;
O may God bring me where peace is still,
To the King’s land, eternity’s fold.
Praise to the Father, praise to the Son,
Praise to the Spirit, the Three in One.
From The Creed Prayer,
poems of the Western Highlanders
8During the lockdown, we are forbidden from driving to beauty
spots and walking in National Trust parks. IWhat do the birds
make of it all?
Titwillow
(With apologies to WS Gilbert)
On a tree by a river sat little Tom Tit
Singing ‘willow, titwillow, titwillow’.
His mate fluttered in and beside him did sit,
Singing ‘willow, titwillow, titwillow’.
“Oh, where are the people?” bewildered, he cried,
“Tis many a day since a soul I have spied”
“I think,” said his wife, “they’re all staying inside!”
“Oh willow, titwillow, titwillow”.
“I do like the quiet, I do like the peace!
“Oh, willow, titwillow, titwillow,
“But find myself wondering why did they cease
“Singing willow, titwillow, titwillow?”
“The people in hundreds of cars they all came
“Especially when there was no sign of much rain,
“The weather’s so nice, it seems such a shame!
“Oh willow, titwillow, titwillow!”
“I think I can tell you!” – she’d a smile on her beak,
Singing willow, titwillow, titwillow,
“For I saw some people last Saturday week,
“Singing willow, titwillow, titwillow,
“They stood in a group, they were flying a kite,
“Along came a police car with lights flashing bright,
“It seems the Old Bill gave those people a fright!
“Oh willow, titwillow, titwillow!”
9A buzzard, above them, then uttered his ‘mew’
Oh willow, titwillow, titwillow.
As quick as they could off to safety they flew,
Singing willow, titwillow, titwillow!
Arrived at their nest then our avian pair
Correctly concluded what caused human scare:
“They’re frightened of critters that fly in the air!
“Oh willow, titwillow, titwillow!”
By Nigel Beeton
How to make your wife more efficient
An efficiency expert was delivering a seminar on time management for
a company’s junior executives. He concluded the session with a dis-
claimer: “But whatever you do, do NOT attempt these task-organising
tips at home,” he said.
When he was asked why not, he explained: “Well, I did a study of my
wife’s routine of fixing breakfast. I noticed she made a lot of trips be-
tween the refrigerator and the stove, the table and the cabinets, each
time carrying only one item. So, I told her: ‘Darling you are making too
many trips back and forth carrying one item at a time. If you would only
try carrying several things at once you would be much more effi-
cient.’” He paused.
“Did that save time?” one of the executives asked.
“Actually, yes,” the expert answered, “It used to take her 15 minutes to
fix my breakfast. Now I get my own in seven minutes.”**
10In the Day of Trouble
There is a God who answers prayer
Who intercedes before the throne
The Son of God who ever cares
Who walks with us, we’re not alone.
Though flood and pestilence should come
He sees the path that we now tread
His rod and staff will comfort us
He knows the days that lie ahead.
We trust in Him who knows all things
And lift our prayers to heaven above
Our confidence is all in Him
Encompassed by unfailing love.
By Megan Carter
11Editor: The Revd Michael Burgess continues his series on God in the Arts with an
icon of Christ the true vine, from the 16th century. It is in the Byzantine and Chris-
tian Museum in Athens. This image is tagged as being in the public domain, and
can be found at https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/
File:Christ_the_True_Vine_icon_(Athens,_16th_century).jpg
‘I am the true vine’
Jesus the Good Shepherd has been a popular inspiration for artists from the
earliest days of Christianity. But this month we focus on another image that has
been just as powerful and influential from the first centuries of the Church: Je-
sus the vine.
We think of grapes and the vine as symbols of the Eucharist and the sacrifice of
Jesus, but early artists borrowed their inspiration from Greek and Roman
sources with Dionysos (or Bacchus), the god of wine. For pagan believers, wine
was a sign of intoxication and renewal of life, and Dionysos was a god who died
and rose again. Under that influence, sculptors would carve vines on Christian
tombs as a sign of that promise of new life.
But those artists were also influenced by the vine as an image of the people of
Israel in the Old Testament, with God as the vintner tending his vine, as they
were influenced by our Lord’s own words in St John’s Gospel. When Jesus
talked of Himself as the vine, He was pointing to two truths. The first was the
connection between the vine and the grapes: it was a symbol for the intimate
relationship between Jesus and His followers. They are the grapes, because they
receive their fruitfulness from Jesus. Without Him, there would be no growth,
no maturity, no fruit. ‘Whoever remains in Me, with Me in him, bears fruit in
plenty.’
The second truth in this image is the wine that can bring life a new taste. Just as
Jesus changed water into wine, His whole life was one of transformation –
bringing water to the thirsty, sight to the blind, light to those in darkness, for-
giveness to the sinner, and eternal life to those burdened by this world and the
reality of death. The wine is a symbol of that goodness and flavour, both in cre-
ation and in salvation – the wine at the dinner party, and the wine in the chalice
in communion. Jesus as the true vine brings that flavour and goodness to us.
1213
The second truth in this image is the wine that can bring life a new taste. Just as
Jesus changed water into wine, His whole life was one of transformation –
bringing water to the thirsty, sight to the blind, light to those in darkness, for-
giveness to the sinner, and eternal life to those burdened by this world and the
reality of death. The wine is a symbol of that goodness and flavour, both in cre-
ation and in salvation – the wine at the dinner party, and the wine in the chalice
in communion. Jesus as the true vine brings that flavour and goodness to us.
Both truths speak out to us from this month’s image of Jesus in an icon. In the
Orthodox Church the icon is a window into the kingdom of heaven. As we stand
and pray before the icon, if we can bridge ‘the distance of the heart’ (the space
between the human eye and the icon), then God can reveal His glory to us. Here
we see the face of Jesus in a 16th century icon, which is in the Byzantine and
Christian Museum in Athens – the icon of Christ the true vine. He looks out at us,
the Gospel book in His lap and His hands outstretched to bless the 12 disciples.
The icon illustrates very vividly that metaphor of Jesus when He says that He is
the vine and they are the branches. But those hands are also welcoming us to be
with the 12: they invite us to offer our lives to live in Jesus.
Anselm Grun, a German Benedictine, tells how one of his fellow monks won-
dered what a difference there would have been if Jesus had said, ‘I am a slim-
ming camomile tea.’ But no, He says to us in the Gospel and in the icon, ‘I am the
true vine’: live in Me like my 12 disciples and your lives can be fruitful in my
service.
1415
16
17
18
19
20
MAZE—
Find the way to the Green Arrow
21WORDSEARCH
22CROSSWORD CLUES
Across
1 See 23 Across
3 Where the thief on the cross was told he would be, with Jesus
(Luke 23:43) (8)
8 Invalid (4)
9 Blasphemed (Ezekiel 36:20) (8)
11 Adhering to the letter of the law rather than its spirit (Philippians
3:6) (10)
14 Shut (Ecclesiastes 12:4) (6)
15 ‘This is how it will be with anyone who — up things for himself
but is not rich towards God’ (Luke 12:21) (6)
17 Mary on Isis (anag.) (10)
20 Agreement (Hebrews 9:15) (8)
21 Native of, say, Bangkok (4)
22 Deaf fort (anag.) (5-3)
23 and 1 Across ‘The Lord God took the man and put him in the Gar-
den of — to work it and take — of it’ (Genesis 2:15) (4,4)
Down
1 Struggle between opposing forces (Habakkuk 1:3) (8)
2 James defined this as ‘looking after orphans and widows in their
distress and keeping oneself from being polluted by the
world’ (James 1:27) (8)
4 ‘The one I kiss is the man; — him’ (Matthew 26:48) (6)
5 ‘Be joyful in hope, patient in — , faithful in prayer’ (Romans 12:12)
(10)
6 St Columba’s burial place (4)
7 Swirling current of water (4)
10 Loyalty (Isaiah 19:18) (10)
2312 ‘God was pleased through the foolishness of what was — , to
save those who believe’ (1 Corinthians 1:21) (8)
13 Camp where the angel of the Lord slew 185,000 men one night (2
Kings 19:35) (8)
16 ‘There is still — — — Jonathan; he is crippled in both feet’(2 Sam-
uel 9:3) (1,3,2)
18 David Livingstone was one (4)
19 Driver and Vehicle Licensing Authority (1,1,1,1)
Answers: Page 27
24The Prayer Chain
If you would want someone to prayer for you then
please phone a member of the Prayer Chain.
Sue Ritchie
829553
Jackie Bebbington Paulette Obee
876695 875866
Annette Mace Ann Bone
810795 823135
Margaret Hillman Margaret Noel
832870 0208 467 1994
Linda Ruiz Jacqui Crossingham
486649 877343
John Gray Margaret Slade
825461 852677
Angela Liddell Liz Drysdale
827480 600588
Alan Nicholson
824743
25more
less
Therefore do not worry
about tomorrow,
for tomorrow will worry
about itself.
Each day has enough
trouble of its own.
Matthew 6:34
26ANSWERS to CROSSWORD
Across Down
1 Care 1 Conflict
3 Paradise 2 Religion
8 Null 4 Arrest
9 Profaned 5 Affliction
11 Legalistic 6 Iona
14 Closed 7 Eddy
15 Stores 10 Allegiance
17 Missionary 12 Preached
20 Covenant 13 Assyrian
21 Thai 16 A son of
22 Trade-off 18 Scot
23 Eden 19 DVLA
27St John’s United Reformed Church
Lynwood Grove, Orpington , Kent BR6 0BG
Telephone 01689 830453
Website: wwstjohnsurc.org.uk Facebook: @stjohnsorp
Minister : Jennifer Millington minister@stjohnsurc.org.uk
Treasurer : Johnston Brown finance@stjohnsurc.org.uk
Church Secretaries : churchsec@stjohnsurc.org.uk
Jon Henderson churchsec1@stjohnsurc.org.uk
Tina Wheeler churchsec2@stjohnsurc.org.uk
Church Elders and Team Leaders elders@stjohnsurc.org.uk
Property : Billy Murdoch property@stjohnsurc.org.uk
Church in Community : Steve Bebbington cinc@stjohnsurc.org.uk
Church and World : Lizzie Howells churchworld@stjohnsurc.org.uk
Publicity : Paul Gill publicity@stjohnsurc.org.uk
Faith Development : Margaret Barnes faithdevelopment@stjohnsurc.org.uk
Pastoral : Liz Sutton pastoral1@stjohnsurc.org.uk
Angela Liddel pastoral2@stjohnsurc.org.uk
Without Portfolio Amy Smit elderwp3@stjohnsurc.org.uk
Clare Veal elderwp1@stjohnsurc.org.uk
Lesley Clare elderwp2@stjohnsurc.org.uk
Children and Young People’s Work
Church Elder: Charlotte Leonard youthnchildren@stjohnsurc.org.uk
Youth Minister Charlie Powell youth@stjohnsurc.org.uk
The Place Benedict Leonard theplace@stjohnsurc.org.uk
Sunday Fun Club Yvonne Veal sundayfunclub@stjohnsurc.org.uk
Just Babies Lizzie Brown justbabies@stjohnsurc.org.uk
Toddlers Lizzie Brown toddlers@stjohnsurc.org.uk
Newsletter
Brenda Sussex newsletter@stjohnsurc.org.uk
Hall Lettings
Alison Bruce alibaba@care4free.net
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